Berkshire Community College Oral History Project

Founding BCC President Thomas O’Connell

1960 was the year Berkshire Community College was founded.  The first community college in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, BCC has a story  – in fact, many stories.  The architecture, the theater, the portico, all of it were created with purpose.   So, we started by interviewing founding faculty.  We have interviewed alumni/ae, often with current students helping out.  And one year, we collaborated with the BCC Alumni/ae Office.

This is an ongoing, long-term project.

In Summer, 2023, Archives Assistant Jennifer Cummings prepared the project for the archive. We will collaborate with the Digital Commonwealth to safely archive and make them available online.  While our materials are prepared for the archive and we wait in the queue, we are posting here.


Founding faculty member, Robert Boland – https://youtu.be/O-QUO4EmoWk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He was one of the first two faculty members, and was involved in the campus design.  Because of him, the theater is a centerpiece of the campus. 

Here, he listens to a review of a play he directed in the 1960’s.  After hearing the names of the student actors, he said he remembered each one of them, and not only that, he knew what they were doing now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Early faculty member Mario Caluorihttps://youtu.be/7fV3vf1OaCo



 

Erwin Figueroa, student who was a part of the CASS program
https://youtu.be/WBnwVUSg670

He came to BCC via this U.S. State Department program, which invited students from Central America to study in the States.  BCC was one of the sites.

 

 

 

 


Keye Hollister, as a student she came to BCC during the first president’s tenure
https://youtu.be/CDHnJmmGI1E

 


Long time faculty and partner/colleague:   Don Lathrop and Merry Lathrop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAwoBgNlB3g

 


Nursing alumna Meredith Patton
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxfmkcirnDg


Tom Wojtkowski, Mass State Reprepresentative from Pittsfield, who proposed this first Mass Community College
https://youtu.be/0tuo74IHOiA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

More to come….

 

The photo, above, of the painter is pulled from the BCC archives.  We love it!   But we do not know who it is.  If you know, please tell us:   413-236-1025, or jmonachina@berkshirecc.edu